In "fast food" restaurants, french fried potatoes are typically served in open-ended containers. The most economical container has been the open-ended paper bag, which can be held open and filled with a well-known metal scoop, and temporarily stored in a sawtooth-shaped rack. However, paper bags are subject to tearing and can be difficult to handle because of their flimsiness.
Open-ended paperboard containers have also been provided to hold french fried potatoes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,966,293; 3,630,430; 3,684,157; 3,845,897; 3,877,632 and 4,185,764 show containers which can be snap-erected and remain erected because of inwardly-bowing bottom or sidewall panels. While some such containers have been relatively easy to erect and others can stand erect without support, prior art configurations have had various disadvantages such as not being adapted for temporary storage in typical sawtooth racks, or using a relatively large amount of paperboard to provide full side or bottom panels, or creating long, unsealed cut joints at the bottom portion of the container through which grease or granular product coatings could escape. When such long unsealed joints are present, the problem of leakage can be exacerbated if the contents of the container press against its walls in a manner which tends to collapse the container, thus creating gaps at the joints. A further disadvantage in the containers shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,845,897 and 3,877,632 is that the center or "break point" of the inwardly-bowing side wall panels is midway along the height of the container. This configuration leaves the container vulnerable to pressure from product within the container which may tend to collapse the container. In the case of both of these prior patents, such collapsing would create gaps at the bottom of the container and increase the possibility of leakage, as noted above.